Fuel Costs

After your initial capital investment, fuel costs can quickly become your biggest operating expense, and rising fuel prices and shrinking budgets have demanded a strong arm when it comes to increasing efficiency. Conducting a thorough evaluation of boiler equipment requires review of fuel usage and boiler efficiency. A typical boiler will consume many times the initial capital expense in fuel usage annually. Consequently, a difference of just a few percentage points in boiler efficiency between units can translate into substantial savings. Cleaver-Brooks has a free evaluation program called BOOSTSM that can show how retrofitting your current boiler can dramatically increase efficiency and savings over the boiler’s life cycle. Remember, the initial cost of a boiler is the lowest portion of your boiler investment. Fuel and maintenance costs represent the largest portion of your boiler equipment investment.

Some basic design differences can reveal variations in expected efficiency performance levels. Evaluating these design differences can provide insight into what efficiency value and resulting operating costs you can expect. However, every boiler operates under the same fundamental thermodynamic principles. Therefore, a maximum theoretical efficiency can be calculated for a given boiler design. The maximum value represents the highest available efficiency of the unit. If you are evaluating a boiler, be sure the stated efficiencies are not higher than the theoretical efficiency value.

When it comes to efficiency, we believe in sticking to the facts, because the facts say there is a difference between boilers. The value of buying a higher efficiency Cleaver-Brooks boiler will pay dividends every day, every year, throughout the life of the equipment. Contact a Cleaver-Brooks rep today to ask for a free BOOST evaluation, and explore other savings opportunities in the reports below.